i'm a photojournalist and i want to start making slideshow presentations with recorded ambient sound, interviews, music, etc, that play in the background while the images run.

my question is: what tool would you recommend for getting good audio? it's gotta be small in size, since it has to fit easily into my camerabag. i've used a sony minidisc recorder before but getting the sound into my 15" pb g4 1ghz seems to be a hassle, not to mention the cords are not the convenient for moving quickly. i do like the sony mic that i got for it but would prefer one that fits into a camera's hotshoe.

here's a sample slideshow that I'd like to get sounds for next time, it's a concert festival i shot recently:
http://homepage.mac.com/mauriceramirez/mus...eSharing95.html

it would have been nicer had i put in sounds of the crowd, and the artists (with permission of course).

also preferable is something with lots of battery life, that doesn't need a huge external charger for packing for travel.

ideally I'd like to do presentations like this:
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/assets...ash/A240593.SWF

thanks,

-m

well... I would say go for a Sony MiniDisc recorder but that is not best sound quality... it may be suffice though. Just get a stereo mic (Sony sells them) for the MD and there you go... sadly, Sony doesn't make the MD players compatible with Macs though if that matters.

Another option... you could get an ipod and use a hack I have seen on the net that allows you to record up to 96khz .aiff files that would sound much better. But this is something I have never tried and only read about at hackaday.com

Don't buy ANY sort of a MiniDisk -- you'll go through hell trying to get your sound files into a Mac.